MARA Holdings (MARA), the largest bitcoin (BTC) miner by market capitalization, announced that it is lending out 7,377 BTC to third parties as part of a strategy to generate returns on its holdings and help cover operational expenses.
In a production report released on Friday, the company revealed that this lending program ties up around 16% of its bitcoin. However, MARA did not disclose the identities of the borrowers or provide further details about the lending structure. According to Robert Samuels, the company’s vice president of investor relations, the lending program is yielding a return of less than 10%. Samuels mentioned in a post on X, “There has been significant interest in MARA’s bitcoin lending program. It focuses on short-term deals with established third parties and provides a modest single-digit yield. This initiative has been active throughout 2024, with the long-term goal of generating enough yield to offset operating expenses.”
MARA also shared its mining performance for December, noting that it produced 890 BTC, which is 2% lower than the previous month. Despite this, it was the second-highest monthly production since the reward halving in April.
Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel commented, “We mined 249 blocks, marking the second-highest block count in a month on record. MARAPool achieved an impressive 168% annual hash rate growth in 2024, far outpacing the 49% growth of bitcoin’s network.”
For the entirety of 2024, MARA acquired 22,065 BTC at an average price of $87,205 and mined an additional 9,457 BTC, bringing its total bitcoin holdings to 44,893 BTC. With bitcoin trading just below $100,000, MARA is now the second-largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin, behind only MicroStrategy (MSTR).
In pre-market trading, MARA shares rose by 2.60%, bringing the total gain for the year to 14%.
